TF2Ware

TF2Ware is a custom SourceMod game mode and accompanying map that emulates the gameplay style of the WarioWare game series on Nintendo consoles. The modification, still in development, was created by Mecha the Slag, known for various other MechaWare projects. Currently, it is developed by Mecha the Slag, NuclearWatermelon and Benny Hill.

The gameplay within the map involves all players participating in randomly chosen 'microgames', simple tasks with short instructions and a duration of less than 5 seconds. Players are automatically changed to the class the microgame (or their role within the microgame) requires, are generally forced to wield a specific weapon (or whatever is currently in the required slot), and do not have any ammunition or cannot melee unless the microgame requires it. Players earn one point per microgame that they 'win', and as soon as one player has 18 points a Boss Stage is begun, which is longer (about one minute on average) and slightly more complex than the normal microgames, and always has a dedicated environment within the map. The player with the most points following a Boss Stage is given free rein to kill all other players on the stage, after which the flow of gameplay is looped and everybody's score resets to 0.

The most current version of the map is TF2Ware_Test34.

A sequel/complete rewrite, "TF2Ware 2: DIY", is currently in development. Similar to Warioware: DIY, it will feature a microgame maker that uses a basic visual drag-and-drop interface. A few details, such as a "Warehouse" database that is capable of containing all of the microgames that are created, support for custom materials, models, sounds and maps, the ability to vote on microgames after each round (microgames+boss), and translation for multiple languages have been released. The release date of "TF2Ware 2: DIY" is currently unknown.

Microgames

• Airblast: Everyone is a Pyro with a standard Flamethrower that can only airblast. They are teleported to a small arena with instant-kill spike walls on all sides. They must survive by airblasting enemy Pyros into one of the spiked walls. Any surviving Pyros are awarded a point. Killing enemy Pyros will not award any additional points.

Tips: Hold down MOUSE2 and try to get as far from the spiked walls as possible.

• Avoid the Kamikaze: One player becomes a Scout with a low-fuse timebomb attached to them. Their goal is to 'blow up' at least two Heavies (the class all other players are changed to), by being close to them when the timebomb goes off. The Scout is awarded a point for 2 or more deaths besides their own, and all surviving Heavies also earn a point.

Tips: As the Scout, look at where a cluster of Heavies are and try to round them up into a corner instead of rushing straight at them. As a Heavy, go to the Scout's starting point as most people will immediately run away from there.

• Break a Barrel: Everyone is a Scout and wields their Bat or Sandman. Breakable barrel props appear all around the arena, and players must break at least one barrel with melee attacks to earn a point. It's possible to kill any other player if you melee them fast enough before the timer expires. There are never enough barrels.

• Don't Move: Exactly as the name says, you must not move after the instructions have been on-screen for one second, until the microgame ends. Players may taunt and look around without incurring a loss. Anybody who moves is killed instantly and doesn't earn a point.

• Don't Stop Moving: The opposite of Don't Move, with an identical early 'safe period'. Collision with enemy players is enabled to make this microgame harder. Anybody who stops moving is killed instantly and doesn't earn a point.

• Get on a Platform: Of the nine square platforms in the default arena, all but a few (1-3) are removed, and lethal water begins pouring in. Players have a short amount of time to jump onto a platform before the water rises, and any surviving player is given a point. A previous exploit was that if the player was a Scout, he could avoid death entirely by a timed double-jump, although that has been fixed as all Scouts turn into Demomen on microgame start. It is still possible to jump at just the right time and avoid losing, however.

• Get to the End: Everyone is a Scout, and gets teleported to one end of a rectangular arena with no vertical boundaries. Saw blades are arranged in an H shape ahead of the players, who are spawned facing the arrangement from the 'side'. Players must reach a glowing yellow area at the far end of the area, within the time limit, to score a point.

• Hit an Enemy: All players are changed to one of three possible class/slot combos: A Demoman with the bottle (and Chargin' Targe, if equipped), an Engineer with the Shotgun, or a Spy with their chosen primary weapon (Revolver, Ambassador, Big Kill, or L'Étranger). They must shoot one enemy player within the time limit to score. Players may or may not be killed when shot, determined before the game starts. To reduce confusion, friendly fire is enabled.

Tips: You will need to act fast to win this minigame. When the minigame starts, spam your primary weapon at someone and just hope that it connects or keep shooting at a certain person before the minigame starts. If you are playing the Engineer or Spy version, crouch to make it harder for people to hit you. If you are playing the Demoman version, find someone nearby who isn't looking at you and try to hit him. As long as you hit someone, it doesn't matter if you get hit yourself.

• Needle Jump / Rocketjump / Stickyjump: Based on a patched exploit, everyone is a Medic who must fire their Syringe Gun while jumping and aiming at the floor to propel themselves beyond the range of numerous grounded time bombs. Variations include rocket jumping as a Soldier and sticky jumping as a Demoman. Survivors earn a point. It is possible to needle jump on an enemy so that they cannot move.

Tips: Sticky bombs will bounce off the platforms. Needle jumping needs a small jump to get going. If you commit suicide, it will count as a win.

• Simon Says: In a simple adaptation of Simon Says, players must perform an action (such as taunting, jumping, crouching, etc.) depending on the instruction given. If the action is performed when the instructions read "Someone Says", the player is told that they failed the microgame and are exempt from earning a point. Players can also fail if they don't act when presented with the "Simon Says" command.

Tips: Taunting while the game has sped up a lot will cause you to taunt faster, but your speech will not accelerate with the taunt. This means that after taunting, you will be stuck in third-person mode for a while. Keep this in mind when the microgame asks you to taunt.

• Type the Answer: A simple mathematical question appears in the upper-middle of the HUD of all players, and they must type the correct answer into the server's chat channel in order to score. Wrong answers result in immediate player death. Negative numbers are sometimes used.

Tips: A quick mind is necessary in this minigame. Think quick.

• Do the Spycrab: All players are changed to Spies with their Disguise Kit out. They have to crouch and aim up, imitating the Spycrab pose. Failure to do so results in player death, and no points being awarded to them. Upon failing the microgame, the words, "Spycrabs CROUCH and LOOK UP" appear in chat, to assist new players.

• Hit the Target: All players are turned into Snipers and transported to a shooting gallery. They must try to shoot a single Heavy target that appears on the field. Failure to shoot the target will result in no points. There are no walls to this area, so several other areas are visible.

Tips: The target can appear in three different spots: left, middle and right. Keep your crosshairs trained on the middle spot so that you can quickly move you crosshairs to the target and shoot accurately. Use your scope if you have to. Your reload animation does not allow you enough time to shoot again.

• Type the Word/Color: The name of a color is displayed on the screen, with the color of the text being different than the color written. The player is prompted to either type the text written or the color of the text. An incorrect answer kills the player instantly.

• Jump on a Heavy's Head: One team of players are turned into Heavies, while the others are turned into Scouts. A Scout gains a point by jumping on the head of a Heavy, while a Heavy gains a point by not being jumped on. This minigame has been removed

Boss Stages

Any player who meets the win conditions of a Boss Stage is awarded 5 points instead of 1.

• Avoid the Cuddly Heavy: Either two or three players, depending on the total number of players, are converted into Heavies while the rest are Scouts. The boss environment is a large room with pink surfaces and red heart outlines. The Heavies' goal is to 'hug' the Scouts to death, effectively meaning 'colliding with a Scout will kill them instantly', with the Scouts trying to survive this ordeal for as long as possible. The Heavies will periodically shout modified speech files to display their affection. As the timer runs down, the walls all move steadily inwards, shrinking the size of the room until it becomes very difficult for the Scouts to dodge. If any Scouts survive, they earn points, while the entire team of Heavies earn points if no Scouts remain alive at the end.

Tips: As a Scout, try to stay away from groups of Scouts and keep a low profile. Never try to jump over the Heavies. When there are fewer Scouts left and the room is smaller, try not to get cornered by the Heavies. As a Heavy, go for large groups of Scouts. Try to communicate with the other Heavies and try to close in on one Scout at a time.

• Reach the End (Heavy): Everyone is a Heavy, and they are forced to run a linear obstacle course at a steady pace, due to an instant-death spikewall following behind them and a static brick wall moving ahead of them (as well as a Sandvich reward to lure them). The course's main hazard is an instant-death void that catches any players who don't remain on the platforms. Players who reach the end point alive are awarded points.

• Score 7 Goals: Everyone is a Demoman with the Grenade Launcher selected, filled to its maximum ammo capacity. Their goal is to fire grenades into a constantly-moving basketball hoop, attached to the far wall of a large wooden room, blocked off by a wooden and bard-wire fence. 7 of the player's grenades must fall into the hoops for them to earn points at the end. All equipped weapons are selectable in this stage, but attacking other Demomen will only cause one point of damage per hit. This microgame may be made difficult if one is being crowded by players on the opposite team, as their grenades will hit them instead of going towards the hoop.

Tips: Stand away from the other Demomen as your grenades might simply hit them. Instead of launching your grenades from a still position, try to follow the net and take your time in shooting your bombs.

• Don't Fall: Everyone is a Spy and on platforms. The platforms fall down as the game progress. Spies are able to push each other through stabbing with their knife, and if they perform a backstab they launch their victim out of the arena, leaving them to die from the fall.

• Don't Starve: Everyone is Pyro in an open area where they slowly lose health. There's a jumprope and a Sandvich in the middle. In order to avoid starvation, the player has to continuously stay in the center and jump over the rope.

Tips: Jumping when the rope is 90 degrees to you will ensure you can survive. dipping in and out of the rope will give you a little breathing time.

• Reach the End (Medic): Everyone is a frog (technically Medic) and have to play through a classic game of Frogger to win. Only players that reach the end within five seconds of the first to complete the course get points. This microgame is played in third-person, the only one to do so.

• Reach the End (Soldier): Everyone is a Soldier, and they are forced to run a vertical obstacle course at a steady pace, due to an instant-death pool of water constantly moving upwards below them, and a brick wall moving in the same direction above. In order to reach the top of the area, players are required to rocket jump to platforms that appear as the stage progresses upwards.

• Ghostbusters: Players are split into 3 teams: The Ghostbusters (Medics) are tasked with finding and "busting" all ghosts (Spies) in the mansion by healing them with their mediguns, while the Slimers (Heavies) attempt to kill all the Medics. When a Medic heals a Spy, the Spy catches fire. If healed for 3 seconds, the Spy dies. If at least one Spy survives, the remaining Spies win. If all the Spies are busted, the Medics win. If all the Medics are killed, the remaining Spies and Heavies win. The music varies from a generic "horror" track to an instrumental version of the Ghostbusters theme song. While "busting" a ghost, the Medic's view will be locked onto that ghost, in a manner reminiscent of the Chainsaw from Doom.

Special Round

Special rounds are activated when the words "SPECIAL MODE!" appear across the screen. These special rounds include:

• Don’t Score! Every player is challenged to not score any points.
• Single Player Every player has become invisible to one another.
• Third Person Every player is now in 3rd person.
• BONK Every player now has the Scout’s Metal Bat, and hitting any other player will cause them to rebound off you.
• Pizza Party Every player now needs to collect pizza to win. Losing mini games will cause you to drop a pizza to be collected by others.
• x2 The round is 2 times its normal speed.

Wipeout! (Eliminator Round)

On some occasions, the game will send all players on a invisible platform above the map. In this mode, all players have 3 lives and 3 players are chosen at random to play the normal micro-games. Lose the micro-game and you lose a life. If you win a micro-game, your life count remains the same. Once your life count reaches 0, you are eliminated from play until the next round of micro-games starts. After some eliminations, the number of players per micro-game will go down to 2. This mode will continue until two players are left, at which point the boss micro-game starts and the loser will lose all their lives if they fail.

Music

The vast majority of the music for TF2Ware is taken straight from the WarioWare games, including WarioWare: Smooth Moves and WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$. As the music comes from the WarioWare series, each microgame lasts exactly eight beats of the current tempo. However, the Wipeout round music is entirely custom. It has been confirmed that the microgame maker in the sequel will utilise stock microgame music, so the players wouldn't have to find their own music.

External links

• TF2Ware Official Steam Group
• TF2Ware Official YouTube Channel
• TF2Ware Official Twitter Account
• TF2Ware Official Blogger